the other names (i.e. ianuarie, februarie etc.) entered Romanian via Church Slavonic (which accounts for the presence of an odd -m- in the name for October: Octombrie!).

Quoting myself, I'd like to write something about that "odd -m-" in the name for October; I think it's a very interesting case.

This "odd -m-" is present only in languages spoken by people who are mainly "Orthodox" (or other Eastern-rite) Christians. Cf. Bulgarian: oktomvri; Romanian: octombrie; Armenian: ogtomper/oktomber; Georgian: oktomberi; Russian: oktjabr' (where -ja- comes from a Slavonic nasal, thus originally "oktombrie"). The most interesting case is that of Modern Greek (which maybe the key to the "mystery"): Although the correct (and accepted) form is "Oktovrios" (i.e. without any -m-), many people say "Oktomvrios"; in Byzantine times this was also written in the latter form! This is an error made by Byzantines (and then passed into Church Slavonic), due to analogy with other month names containing -m-, i.e. Dekemvrios, Septemvrios, Noemvrios. From Byzantine "pseudo-savant" Greek it passed to Church Slavonic (and thence to other Balkan languages), Armenian and Georgian. I say "pseudo-savant" because the natural Greek pronunciation (ever since) didn't tolerated the sequence [mv]; Greeks always said [mb] or just [b] (Southern Modern Greek). Greek "savants" consider sequences such as [mv], [nδ] as more elevated . So, many laymen imitated them in thinking that "Oktovrios" (without -m-) was a ... rustic pronunciation (poor guys!). Bulgarian seems to have taken the word directly from Greek rather than from Church Slavonic.

Sometimes this Board offers more than a dozen etymological dictionaries can. Thanks, Hlewagastiz, I have always wondered about the reason for the -ja- in the Russian form, now I know!

About "frunze"I thought "frunze" was of slavonic origin.... or from further Cf the city "Frunze" in Tadjikistan.... maybe it's just a coincidence lol:

A correction: Frunze was the Soviet-era name for the capital of Kyrgyzstan, not Tajikistan; it was named in honor of the early Bolshevik leader Mikhail Frunze. In 1991, it was renamed Bishkek (reflecting its pre-Soviet name of Bishkek/Pishpek).

Frunze himself was born in pre-Soviet Bishkek, but was apparently an ethnic Russian; I have no idea if his name has any relation to the month-name frunzar in Rumanian, either via Latin or Slavic derivation.)

p@,Glenn

My boss has just gone to Bishkek on mission, he spent a week there. Fascinating place, apparently. Lots of fresh, tasty, unpretentious food.

On the weekend, he went to a nearby resort on lake Issyk Kul, which is partly fed by underwater hot springs. Despite the existence of these hot springs, the resort hotel had hot water for only a few hours every day. Good old Soviet-style know-how!

Sometimes this Board offers more than a dozen etymological dictionaries can. Thanks, Hlewagastiz, I have always wondered about the reason for the -ja- in the Russian form, now I know!

Thanks, gsandi. I've also written a book concerning such phenomena linking together languages spoken by people sharing common cultural features. It will be published in a few months; I'll let you know, if you're interested in such kind of linguistic relationships.

kolovoz (<croatian "kolovoz"... is it really from "kolo"=circle and "voz"=train ???!!)

I suspect the -voz is related to osam 'eight', although I'm not sure if the Croatian form ever had initial v- like Russian does.

Croatian didn't ever had such initial v- (like Russian, spoken Czech and other Slavonic tongues); nor could -voz be in any way related to "osam", since Slavonic [s] is never confused with Slavonic [z]; the etymology must be based on the roots Nikura mentioned, but the meaning couldn't be this, of course...

I see these are in need of some ethymologies. As with the S?mi months the Finnish month names all end with the word kuu, "moon", that's also commonly used as a shorter form of kuukausi, "month", in speech. The initial parts are:tammi = "oak"helmi = "pearl", propably referring to the shining snow of late winter timemaalis, not found as an independent word and I'm not aware of it's ethymologyhuhti, same as abovetouko, as older word for spring that isn't found independently, other that the month's name it's preserved in the compound toukoty?t, "spring time works at the field", and perhaps in some dialectskes? = "summer"hein? = "hay"elo = "harvest", the word is actually derived from the verb el??, to live, with the more regular meaning "living"syys, a compound form of the word syksy, "autumn"loka = "mud"marras, an older word for a certain kind of deathjoulu = "Christmas"

I've heard that tammi used to mean something like navel or center, and january is called that because it's in the middle of winter. It's interesting that tammi nowadays means oak, because in many cultures (including the Finnish I think) they believed that there was a gigantic tree in the middle of the world. Helmi also means bead. It refers to the ice drops that are formed on tree branches when snow melt and then freeze again.

And in the context here, it's common to evoke the older sense of the word, "central hub" (cf. dialectal/arcaic sydänkuu, "heart-"); i.e. midwinter.

Quote:

maalis, not found as an independent word and I'm not aware of it's ethymology

Usually connected to maa "earth, ground, land, country etc.", as being the month when land is exposed for the first time. The morphology is a little off as you'd expect maallis- for "earthy" (ModF usually: "worldly")

Quote:

huhti, same as above

The compounding form of huhta, a type of slash-&-burn field traditionally burnt around April.

Louwmaand / Looimaand (January) : from the activity of leer looien (to tan leather), that was mostly done in JanuarySprokkelmaand (February) : from the Roman purification feast the spurcalia, that was celebrated in February. The name changed by the influence of the Dutch verb sprokkelen (to gather wood or to collect)Lentemaand (March) : The beginning of the springGrasmaand (April) : The month in which new grass begins to growBloeimaand (May) : the bloom monthZomermaand (June) : The month in which the summer beginsHooimaand (July) : The month in which the hay-making is doneOogstmaand (August) : The month in which the harvest is done (The Dutch word 'oogst' (harvest) has been derived from the Latin word Augustus)Herfstmaand (September) : The month in which the autumn beginsWijnmaand (October) : The month which wine is madeSlachtmaand (November) : The month in which animals are slaughteredWintermaand (December) : The month in which the winter begins

I'm not sure why February begins with /tʰ/... I can only guess that it might have been a hypercorrection when (I assumed it was) originally borrowed from Russian, since Greek /tʰ ~ θ/ is often borrowed as /f/ into that language.

There's also an old set of names, which are really cool:

Jan: აპნისი / აპანიaṗnisi / aṗaniFeb: სურწყუნისიsurc̣qunisiMar: მირკანიmirḳaniApr: იგრიკაigriḳaMay: ვარდობისთვეvardobistve "Month of the Rose Season"June: თიბათვე / ივანობისთვეtibatve / ivanobistve "Month of Mowing / Month of the Feastday of St. John"July: მკათათვეmḳatatve "Month of Harvests"Aug: მარიამობისთვეmariamobistve "Month of the Feastday of the Virgin Mary"Sep: (ახალწლისა) ენკენისთვე(axalc̣lisa) enḳenistve (the first word means "new-year-GEN"; the second word doesn't seem to have a transparent etymology but ends in tve "month")Oct: ღვინობისთვეğvinobistve "Month of Wine Production"Nov: გიორგობისთვეgiorgobistve "Month of the Feastday of St George"Dec: ქრისტეშობისთვეkrisṭešobistve "Month of Christmas"

How about the months in the Agawam calendar? These month names (taken down, probably in 1645, by William Pynchon, an English trader living in Springfield Massachusetts) are the only attestation of the language, and (aside from some untranslated place names and a "Loup A" (=Nipmuck?) manuscript) one of the only attestations of any of the original languages of the Connecticut River valley:

William Pynchon wrote:

1. Squannikesos-- When they set Indian corne (pt of Aprill & pt of May)2. moonesquan nimockkesos-- when women weed theire corne (pt of May & pt of June)3. Towwakesos-- when they hill Ind corne (pt of June & pt of July)4. matterl lawawkesos-- when squashes are ripe & Ind beans begin to be eatablemicheeneekesos-- when Ind corne is eatable6. pah[?]quitaqunkkesos-- ye middle between harvest & eating Ind corne7. pepewarr-- bec: of white frost on ye grass & grain8. qunnikesos9. papsapquoho, about ye 6.th day of January or, Lowatannassick: So caled bec: they account it ye middle of winter.10. Squo chee kesos-- bec ye sun hath strength to thaw11. Wapicummilcom-- bec ye ice in ye river is all gone (pt of February & pt of March)12. Namassack kesos-- because of catching fish (pt of March & pt of Aprill

The Algonquianist Gordon Day provided a tentative analysis of the names, based on cognates in other Algonquian languages. The "kesos" element is obviously the word for "moon"/"month", and probably represents something like *[ki:so(h)s] or the like (cf. Abenaki gizos).

The month names Laflesche lists for Osage (a close living relative of Kanza) are quite similar, but Quintero states in her dictionary that they weren't in use among the remaining native speakers she interviewed.

There are many traditional names for the months in Japan. Most of them refer either to weather such as wind, snow, or frost, or plants, especially flowers, budding trees, and fall colours. Here is a list:

*'Kannazuki/Kamisarizuki' means the month when the gods are gone. However, in the Izumo area, 'Kamiarizuki' ('the month when there are gods') is used instead, because it is Izumo where all the gods gather when the leave other regions.

(In case anyone wonders why so many posts on page 1 contain question marks—this is from when the board finally converted to utf-8 some years ago and the encoding of accented/special characters from iso-8859-1 times got fucked up.)

Last edited by Jipí on Fri Jun 22, 2012 2:35 am, edited 1 time in total.

Weinhold's work can be found at wikimedia. A cursory reading shows that indeed there existed differing lists, depending on region and time period; in most cases these lists also mixed names of Latin and German origin. So the unified lists with only German names are best to be seen as attempts by Romantic writers and propagandists to "cleanse" German of "foreign intrusive elements" - attempts that were popular in certain circles from the 18th until the early 20th century. On the other hand, the regional lists and names seem to have indeed been in use by the wider population of the specific regions.

EDIT: The only place you come across these names in contemporary German outside of specialist literature and historical novels is crossword puzzles.

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